


Path to Godhood

by paintpaw



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Headcanon, Holocaust Mention, Jewish Character, Medic's parents, Nazi hunting, Nazi mention, Rottenburg, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 19:24:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17330936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paintpaw/pseuds/paintpaw
Summary: My own headcanon interpretation for the entire backstory of Medic, focusing on notable years in history and his life. This can be used as a supplement to the canon Medic I roleplay as on tumblr. Warning for some dark WW2-isk themes thrown in with some general tf2 silliness.





	Path to Godhood

**Author's Note:**

> The style of the fic was totally inspired by The Kids Aren't Alright by skarletfyre. I recommend parts of it (my favourite is Heavy's) but please heed the warnings. My fic, however, is a very different take on Medic.

It’s October 1925 and the man who would become the Medic is born. Except he’s not born in the traditional sense but rather--pulled from the glass cavity his fetus has been incubating inside of for the last nine months. Still, his two mothers never found a better way to describe it, so born he was.

The mad scientists of Rottenburg are delighted to hear that another will be joining their numbers. Here, the Hippocratic oath is optional

Little do they know that Johan Issac Ludwig would achieve greater things then any of them would ever imagine.

*

It’s March 1933 and Johan is seven. Hitler is in power, but Johan doesn’t know that.

He lies under a tree in his mother’s lap. The mother who married into this family--who is not from Germany--but has lived here long enough to buy into the town’s ideals.

“You’re so special and important.” She tells him in Yiddish as she runs her thin hands through his soft black hair, the same hair as her own. “A miracle all by yourself. You could change the world. Do whatever you want.”

Johan believes it.

Late at night, hours after he is meant to be asleep, Johan stands at the top of the stairs listening to his family whisper around the kitchen table. His grandfather’s voice is stern and cuts off the voices of his mothers.

“He’ll be voted out soon enough. This will be over before the year is.”

*

It’s November 1938 and Johan is thirteen, but he’s started going by Ludwig now. He’s not sure why he needs to, but his mothers insist.

“But the others call you Ludwig, won’t that be confusing?” He asks his mother in German.

His mother--the one from Rottenburg--turns off the voltage on her latest invention and looks down at her son. She smiles. “You are the Ludwig now, the head of the household. They will call me Hilda.”

The answer isn’t satisfying, but he’s glad that his surgical skills are finally being recognised.

One day, he climbs the church tower like he often had over the years and spots a new flag flying over Stuttgart--the closest city. It’s shocking red, with a white circle and a black symbol. He doesn’t know what it’s for or where it came from but it scares him. He doesn’t climb the church tower again.

*

It’s August 1941 and Ludwig is fifteen. The war is well underway in Europe. His grandfather was shot for standing up for a Jewish family in Stuttgart. But Rottenburg is so tucked away into the mountains, too strange and unknown to the outside world. The Nazis still haven’t found it.

Ludwig trudges through the forest with another boy from the village. Otto is strange, two years older. His family are clones.

“It’s not so different to how you were made.” He says in German. Ludwig disagrees.

He walks with wide eyes, crossbow held to his chest. It’s the best weapon Rottenburg could offer, the town doesn’t know how outdated it really is. The boys are checking the perimeter for soldiers.

Ludwig doesn’t see the beartrap that springs on his foot until it’s too late. He cries out in pain and drops to the floor. While the boys try to carefully pry the trap apart they hear unfamiliar voices with unfamiliar accents on the wind. They hear dogs barking viciously.

As soon as he is free, Ludwig is thrown over the shoulder of Otto and is rushed away. The adults decide it would be best to stop sending children on perimeter checks.

*

It’s September 1945 and Ludwig is nineteen. The war is over, just about. Ludwig was never caught, but he met people who had been. He sits in a British Red Cross unit, trying to explain to a camp survivor that they’d been saved. That the Nazis were retreating.

The British had recruited him for his medical skills and ability to speak German. They hadn’t asked for evidence when he had claimed to be a doctor. A British translator had begun teaching him English, so he could better help the other doctors and nurses.

Some of the liberated Jewish prisoners speak to him in Yiddish, the language of his childhood peppering his German tongue with its accent. They knew he was one of them. They told him which way the Nazi officers had run when they saw the British on the horizon.

In the morning Ludwig was missing, but he returned by noon. The translator asked him why his shirt was bloodied. Ludwig told them he had done God’s work.

*

It’s July 1951 and Ludwig is twenty-five. He lives in England now, and his language is very good. The British gave him a licence after he claimed the original had burnt in a house fire.

He’d seen the wedding on the television in the library and had decided that the venue wasn’t too far away. Ludwig strolls through the celebrating streets with interest, ducking under barriers when nobody is looking.

The doves fidget uncomfortably in their tiny cages, a sight that tugs at Ludwig’s heart. He unhooks the latches on the tiny doors, letting the birds flutter up into the sky much earlier then they were meant to.

In the commotion, nobody sees him slip into the driver's seat of the catering van. Ludwig tuts. The keys were still in the engine. It didn’t matter though, he wanted the van more than they did. Clearly.

The police chase him for days but eventually give up. The Prime Minister didn’t want his cake anymore.

*

It’s December 1955 and Ludwig is thirty. He moved to America some time ago, after England had gotten boring. He’s already started his next big project, a healing formula.

“Are you going to join the war in Vietnam?” A lady asks him as he waits for coffee. Ludwig shakes his head but doesn’t notice the lady frown.

As he was working quietly as a doctor, he finds that his latest patient is German, like him. But there’s something strange about him. The patient always tries to catch Ludwig’s attention, he puts emphasis on certain words and brings up subjects that make him uncomfortable.

Then he starts talking about the war, and Ludwig realises something. The two of them had been on opposing sides in Germany. Ludwig’s mood sours, but he senses an opportunity.

“I’m booking you in for surgery this Sunday. Just a routine, nothing to worry about.”

When the patient woke up, his skeleton was missing and the doctor was never heard from again.

But the government finds him before he can run too far away. He told them that he was a hero and the man had been a Nazi. They take his licence. Ludwig remains proud of his achievement.

*

It’s August 1962 and Ludwig is thirty-six, but he is told that is name will be Medic from now on.

The desert is hot, hotter than anywhere he’s ever been. Rottenburg was in the mountains, it was only hot in the summer. Medic empties the bottled water he’d been handed in four large gulps.

Baking in the desert is a small price to pay for the luxury he had been offered. Free reign to do any experiments he wants, and to be paid in the millions, just for working as a contracted mercenary.

This time, the war didn’t matter to him.

Medic hefts the machine he had built with his own two hands, trying to make the lever’s motion smoother. The Engineer on his team raises an eyebrow but doesn’t comment on the obvious kitchen blender and garden hose used in the doctor’s equipment.

Instead, he sets down an ice cold beer on Medic’s very new desk and smiles at him.

After that, Medic is more than happy to share his ideas with the amicable Texan.

*

It’s October 1968 and Medic is forty-two. The team has been pushed back to a more mountainous area and Medic feels at home in the abandoned hospital they take refuge in.

The laughter from his team’s Heavy shakes through his bones and makes his heart leap with excitement. Never has he had someone so captivated by his stories. So impressed by his achievements. He can hardly contain his words.

And soon his grand experiment will be revealed. Soon, he would show the world--starting with his teammates--that he could truly make gods.

The good company Heavy makes only made that victory sweeter.

“This is some very impressive work, doctor. I was watching over the cameras.” His boss, the Administrator tells him over the phone. “Can you put a price on it?”

“I’ll think about it.” Medic answers.

“Do take your time. But don’t waste mine.” She replies before cutting the transmission.

*

It’s September 1972 and Medic is forty-six. He is killed at the hands of his team’s Classic counterparts but doesn’t know to stay dead. With nine souls under his belt, who has time for death.

He body struggles to comprehend the fact that it was no longer a corpse but Medic forces it to his will.

Nothing stands in his way, not even the fragile nature of his own flesh and blood.

Medic cradles the baby baboon in his arms. A trophy of both his team’s victory and the next step in his latest experiment. Maybe carrying on his lineage was a little low on his priorities, but his mothers would have to forgive him. How long did it take them to make him?

The perfect candidate for a father stands beside him. Giant, strong, determined. Concerned?

There was no need to be concerned. All is well. Medic would make sure of that.

He would return to Rottenburg victorious, heralded even. He was Johan Isacc Ludwig. Maker of Gods. Killer of death.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> Somethings I want to clarify in case it was confusing. I tend to not make some things very explicit and leave it up to the reader to work out, but I don't want to leave out anyone.
> 
> Why did Medic start going by Ludwig instead of Johan?  
> Because Johan is an inherently Jewish name, and if he’d gone around introducing himself as Johan outside of Rottenburg he would have given himself away. His mother Hilda used her own son’s pride to encourage him to take the family name because she knew one day he would be chased out and that the Nazis may still be in power when he is.
> 
> What flag did Ludwig see over Stuttgart?  
> The Nazi flag.
> 
> Who did Ludwig and Otto hear in the woods?  
> Nazi soldiers.


End file.
